The Butterfly Effect

This is a complex review, of all three movies. I hope you'll enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

1. The Butterfly Effect(2004)
This is the original Butterfly Effect, staring Ashton Kutcher. The movie is about Evan, the main character, having a bunch of blackouts during his childhood. After the blackouts, Evan wakes up in weird circumstances.
First of all the movie shows Evan and his friends, Lenny, Kayleigh and Tommy as six year olds, then as thirteen and finally in their twenties. At six, Tommy has a blackout while filming a movie with Kayleigh and her dad. When he wakes up, he stands next to Kayleigh, naked. At thirteen, the kids turn into a bunch of junkies, smoking and doing all kinds of stuff, definitely over their age. I mean, would a 13 year old be as evil as Tommy and put dynamite in a woman's mailbox? Seriously. This is when Evan has another blackout. When he wakes up he finds Lenny injured and the others very agitated. Evan then visits his father, Jason, who has the same problem as his son. A genetically mental disorder that causes him to go back in time by concentrating on images or, in Evan's case, on stuff he wrote in a bunch of diaries. He has another blackout and when he wakes up, Jason tries to strangle him and gets killed by the guards. Later on, Evan meets up with his friends, except Tommy, and, as they walk into the forest, they see smoke in the air and run to its source only to find Tommy there, who had caught Evan's dog and wants to burn it. Evan jumps at Tommy and the kid hits him with a piece of wood, knocking him out cold. He has another blackout and he wakes up only to find out his dog's been killed because Lenny couldn't untie the bag while Tommy was distracted.
Afterwards, the movie fast-forwards to the characters being in their twenties. Evan had been gone from the city ever since after the dog burning moment and became a student. He shares the room with a fat rocker dude with a weird haircut and who screws girls most of the time he appears on screen. Evan's life is perfect, he didn't have anymore blackouts for the past seven years and stuff. Everything changes when he goes back in his old town to meet Kayleigh. He finds her working at a restaurant. After their conversation, the girl runs away (he had brought up painful memories) and the next day news of her suicide reach him. In order to save Kayleigh he goes back in time by concentrating at the diaries. He goes into the past several times, at critical moments, and so the blackouts are explained. Each time he saves someone just to affect someone else's destiny. At some point he even manages to blow himself up and he wakes up in his twenties without arms and legs and with Kayleigh hooked up with Lenny. He probably would have stayed like that, since everything was OK for the others, but then he found out his mother was dying of lung cancer thanks to the fact she started smoking a lot after he had blown himself up.
The final trip back in time differs according to the ending your version of the movie has. Evan gets admitted to the sanatorium after failing to destroy the dynamite when he went back in time. At the sanatorium, back in his twenties, Evan wants to change everything and goes back one last time. The first version, the sad ending, shows him going back to the day he was born and killing himself. The other version, which has three versions itself, shows Evan going back to the day he met Kayleigh and scare her away from him. Then a final scene is shown, with Evan and Kayleigh crossing each other's paths twenty years later or so. The first version shows Evan stopping for a moment and then going further without looking back at Kayleigh. Another version shows Evan stopping and then following Kayleigh, and the last version shows Evan stopping and talking to Kayleigh, inviting her to dinner.
Overall, The Butterfly Effect was a great picture and I enjoyed watching it. It had a great story and the end didn't leave space for a sequel.. so, thankfully there isn't one, since if there actually were one it would suck terribly. I don't think they were stupid enough to make a sequel but it's worth checking out.. (goes to Google and types in The Butterfly Effect 2).. shit, there isn't A sequel.. there are TWO! What have I gotten myself into?!
So, I'd give The Butterfly Effect (the first movie) a well deserved 9.5/10. It's a great movie and, I believe, a must-see for everyone who watches movies. Don't miss this one, you'll regret it.
For those of you who only saw one of the endings, here's a treat:


The Butterfly Effect 2 (2006)
This movie is terrible from all points of view. I mean, it doesn't have the impact the first movie has. It doesn't have the atmosphere of the first movie and, worst of all, it doesn't have any of the characters of the first movie. So, then, how the fuck is this supposed to be a sequel?! Well, easy. Just call it "The Butterfly Effect" and put a big "2" next to it. There, you've got your sequel. Now let's get the money and put it away in a Cayman Islands bank account before the fans demand it back.
So the movie is about a guy called Nick. He and his girlfriend, Julie Miller (hmm so there is a tie to the first film.. Kayleigh's father's family name was miller), played by Erica Durance aka Lois Lane from Smallville, celebrate their anniversary (a few years since they've been together, don't ask how many, I don't know and it's not important). A secondary plot involves Nick's failure at getting promoted instead of another guy called Dave Bristol.
So, anyway, when Nick and Julie return home, along with their friends, Trevor and Gina, one of the car's tires blows up and a truck hits them, causing everyone to die but Nick.
Some time passes, Nick wakes up. Later, when looking at a photograph of himself and Julie, everything in the room begins to shudder and shake, while the people in the photograph begin moving.
A year later, Nick has a headache and a nose bleed, screwing up a presentation at work. As a result he is given a week's suspension. Back home, Nick looks at photographs from Julie's birthday and somehow manages to transport himself back to the moment just before the fatal accident. This time, he knows how to avoid the accident and he awakens in a new timeline where Julie is living happily with him. However, in this reality, Nick's life is ruined when he is fired for backing up his friend and now work colleague Trevor.
Up to now, I haven't found anything interesting at this guy at all. I mean, he does mention Jason (the guy from the first movie, Evan's father) during an internet search, and we do know for a change that Nick's father could also time travel, but that's all. Otherwise he's a selfish bastard. You'll see. He is happy with Julie (but poor now that he lost his job), but no, he wants the money too. He goes back in time and steals Bristol's file so that he would get promoted.
It works, as he wakes up the vice-president of the company, but now he had split up with Julie and lives as a bachelor. Of course, Julie has a new boyfriend and Mr. Selfish isn't happy with that. Also, Trevor and Nick end up on the wrong side of a shady investor, and the company is broke. Nick confesses everything to his mother, who tells him that he can't 'control everything'. She says his father also tried to control things and ultimately committed suicide.
Nick transports himself to the scene from the start of the movie, hoping to finally fix everything by breaking up with Julie. However, he didn't bank on how upset she would be - and she confesses to being pregnant and speeds away in his car. Fearing a similar accident as the original, Nick speeds after her, but ends up facing an oncoming vehicle himself. He opts to save Julie rather than himself and drives off the cliff.
Of course, of course, he suddenly leaves his selfishness and cares about his friends now. The self sacrifice in order to save others cliffhanger always fucking works.
A year later, Julie lives in NY with her and Nick's son. The movie ends with the baby looking at a picture of his parents and their friends and the environment becoming unstable, thus meaning the kid also has his father's problem.
Overall, The Butterfly Effect 2 was disappointing. It has no relation to the original, apart from the same syndrome. Heck, I could make a movie on HIV and then make a sequel with totally different actors, cook up a cliffhanger story and say it's the first and successful first movie's follow-up. Which isn't true at all and only robs people of their money, as this film did. If I were to give it a mark, I wouldn't give it anything above 6/10. That's as good as it gets.
Now I should think I'm done with The Butterfly Effect.. but no way, there's still part 3.

The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations (2009)
Up until now, they only named the movies "The Butterfly Effect". Now they added in "Revelations", just for the sake of changing something.
So.. is this movie good or does it suck just like it's prequel? We shall see.
The third film features a guy called Sam Reide, who goes back in time, in his own body at that moment, and witnesses murders in order to tell the police the murderers' names afterwards. In order to do the time travel, called "jumping" in this movie, he undergoes a full ritual. His sister, Jenna monitors his brain functions as he sits into a tub full of ice and water. Apparently there are some rules in this movie. Just watch, don't alter the past (wait, wait, wasn't altering the past in order to change the present the point of these films in the first place?!).
So, anyway, for him going into the past to witness murders is ordinary routine, until Elizabeth, Sam's murdered girlfriend Rebecca's sister arrives, telling him that the man that's due to be executed for Rebecca's murder, Lonnie Flennonds is actually innocent and offers to pay him in order to find the real killer. Sam turns her down, but goes to speak with the man who tutored him on time travel, Goldburg (Kevin Yon), who reminds him of the cardinal rules: he's not to alter his own personal past, nor travel in time with his body left unsupervised. We learn that a fire that claimed the lives of Sam's parents had claimed Jenna's life too, but Sam altered time so that Jenna survives. After Goldburg's departure, their buxom bartender Vicki (Melissa Jones) seductively offers Sam a buttery nipple; he and Vicki have sex, but upon seeing Rebecca's photo, he cannot continue.
He agrees to help Lonnie, but without time traveling. After visiting Lonnie in the prison and getting accused by the later of murdering Rebecca, Sam decides to go into the past. Once back in 1999, he runs into a drunk Elizabeth and asks her to lock herself in the car while he goes inside the house to check on Rebecca. When he gets there, he finds her dead. Meanwhile, Elizabeth also gets killed.
After he gets to the present, Sam finds out he "created a serial killer" and that 8 women were killed by the so-called "Pontiac Killer". So he goes back in time to try and find out the killer's identity during the third murder, of one Anita Perez. He hides in the close but is caught by her boyfriend and beaten up. Back to the present he starts questioning how come Anita didn't die.
I'm going to skip the rest of the story since I don't intend to spoil everything, and I'm going to get to the final scene and my opinion on the movie.
In the end, Sam goes to a warehouse, where the killer's HQ is supposed to be, and finds Goldburg dying. He then runs into a trap and.. surprise.. Jenna is there to save him. We find out Jenna could time travel as well and she followed him all along. The dead women were all women he fell in love with. Apparently, in her mind, Jenna thought she and Sam could love each other.. not as siblings but the other way around. Sam realizes he had made a big mistake when he saved Jenna, back when their house went on fire, and returns to when he was 15. His parents get away this time, but he holds the door to Jenna's room, preventing her from exiting. Therefore, Jenna dies and everything is fine. Then the movie fast forwards to a few years later. Sam has a wife and a little girl, named, ironically, Jenna. The family is at a barbecue and, while the others are distracted, young Jenna throws her doll on the grill, and smiles as it catches fire.
My final conclusion: a fair movie, and a good conclusion to the series, even though it wouldn't surprise me to see a Butterfly Effect 4 coming out in 2012, just to keep the three years thing going on. Unlike in the second movie, you get to like Sam, as in the end he tries to make things right. Of course, I wasn't really keen on the cliffhanger ending: sacrifice one life to save many lives, but whatever. That's just my opinion. I'd give this movie a well deserved 8/10. Heck, you'll hate me, but this one is even comparable to Butterfly Effect 1 (it doesn't get 9/10 not because it lacks Ashton Kutcher, but because of certain inconsistencies). The movie has plot inconsistencies, like: a guy can time travel and practically teaches someone else how to do it? That's bullshit! The guys in the first two movies had a brain anomaly that allowed them to time travel. So how the heck do you teach someone to do this? By sharing your fucking tumor with them? This is one thing I'll never understand in this movie. How the fuck do you teach someone to time travel, when they clearly explained the god damn thing is genetic and it comes with a brain tumor? Jeez.
I'm done getting angry over this stupid matter. Here you go. 8/10. Now leave me alone!
And here's something to cheer you up. Straight from the official soundtrack. Listen to the music while reading my final opinions. You'll like it.


4.Overall opinions
Overall, the third movie was a lot better than the second one, but the first movie still remains my favorite out of the trilogy. It had everything. A guy traveling to the past in order to make everything better for everybody, a great plot, the guy's ability to time travel is thoroughly explained, etcetera, etcetera. The only thing that bothered me about The Butterfly Effect 1 is the ending.. or rather the endings. I don't understand the need to film so many endings. I mean, OK, maybe people wouldn't like the guy dying, so there's need of an alternative. It's not like alternate endings for the sake of a sequel weren't done before, right? But why so many alternates? I think out of the three meetings in the street, the one where Evan follows Kayleigh would've made everyone happy. Anyway, I'm glad I found all the endings on YouTube. Saved me from downloading hundreds of versions of this movie to see them (what, you don't really think I'm crazy enough to buy another DVD just to see the other endings, right?)
The second movie was a total waste of money. I mean, the story was all right, but it could've been better developed. First of all, Nick was a selfish bastard. Everything was all right when he and Trevor got fired. They could've found themselves new jobs and live happily with their women. But no! Mr "I want to be rich and powerful" just had to fucking go back in time just to get promoted instead of the other guy, Bristol. Also, I don't know why, but I don't believe Nick when he tells Gina he cares about his friends and would do anything to save them. I just can't believe this guy. And the final scene, where he crashed himself into the cliffs, I don't get it either. Couldn't he just return to his side of the road and stay there as a fucking responsible driver? Jeez! Maybe he killed himself knowing that somehow he will get selfish again. Anyway, I don't want to think about this movie anymore. The characters are feelingless and I'm left cold after seeing it. Full stop.
The third movie, well, it was decent, comparing it to the second. I mean, even if the story had BULLSHIT written all over it ever since we find out about "the rules" that you can't change the past, when the purpose of going back is exactly to CHANGE something, not to just watch. Also, as I already said above, the thing about someone fucking teaching someone else to time travel is impossible, as he would need to transfer the other guy his FUCKING BRAIN TUMOR! It's not as easy as going into a tub full of ice and water and concentrate at a date and then go out cold and wake up at that exact date. It's just not possible! And the girl being able to travel as well. that's even more bullshit! Why not end it like "the butler did it!". That would've made me happy, even though then the movie would've been too predictable. True, I wasn't expecting the girl to be the killer. I suppose that might just have worked if they didn't involve her time traveling as well. So what, did she like steal her brother's tumor while he was out cold and decided to go back in time and make sure he doesn't love another woman than her? Wow, that's so much shit served on a single plate that I might just reconsider that 8/10. Come to think of it, the second movie at least made sense, despite the main character being a hypocrite. But this one rips the effect out of the god damn butterfly. It's just stupid.
OK, I guess I contradicted myself, but that's that. I said my opinions. I think the third one, as stupid as it is, leaves a better impression on viewers (at least it left on me) because the main character is not a selfish hypocrite who says he cares about his friends but when everyone is nice and well he goes back in time just to get promoted instead of his colleague. That's my opinion, if you agree with it, OK, if you don't you are free to express your own.